Five more people have been arrested
PJ police have dismantled a criminal group linked to the ‘Hi Mom/Dad’ WhatsApp message scam.
The scheme involved sending messages to unsuspecting mothers and fathers in which fraudsters would try to impersonate their child. In the messages, they would try to convince them to pay a bill for them or transfer money to a new bank account.
According to PJ police, the scammers used SIM cards from one single national operator to send the messages. They got these cards for free from events like music festivals and from museums, where they were given away with 15 days of free use. This allowed them to open countless new WhatsApp accounts and send out thousands of messages.
After arresting the alleged mastermind of the scheme in May, followed by a Brazilian couple in Leiria also involved last month, the judicial police force carried out five searches at stores in “commercial areas in the centre of Lisbon” and two searches in south bank of the Tejo River on Tuesday (July 9), leading to the arrest of five more people.
These latest arrests involve a group which helped collect the SIM cards which were used in the scam.
During Tuesday’s operation, a total of 1,300 SIM cards were seized. However, since the case started being investigated in August 2023, around 8,500 SIM cards have been confiscated, which PJ police say “shows the scale of the criminal scheme and the potential for message dissemination, which victimised hundreds of citizens across the country.”
The alleged mastermind, who is being held under preventive custody, is believed to have used “seven devices (VOIP GATEWAY modems) that could operate 224 SIM cards at once. Between May and November, these devices were used with around 43,000 SIM cards,” PJ police add.
“The investigation identified all those who collaborated in facilitating the approximately 50,000 SIM cards,” the police force says, adding that “the network, consisting of several foreign citizens, collected these free cards in different areas of Greater Lisbon and then sold them for use by the now dismantled criminal structure.”
PJ police add that the investigation is almost complete and the final findings will soon be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Leiria.
